An image processing apparatus such as a facsimile machine has to have both image reading capability and image forming capability, and further has to meet requirement for a smaller size of the image processing apparatus. With this background, there is already made a proposal that an integrated image-reading/writing head capable of performing both image reading and image forming should be incorporated in the image processing apparatus. An integrated image-reading/writing head of this kind has a constitution as shown in FIG. 24 for example. The integrated image-reading/writing head X shown in this figure comprises a case 1A having an upper opening 10A fitted with a transparent cover 19A. Inside the case 1A, there is a light source 3A for illuminating a reading line L provided on the transparent cover 19A. Further downward in the case 1A, an oblong rectangular substrate 4A is disposed. The substrate 4A has a first surface 40A and a second surface 40B respectively mounted with a plurality of light receiving elements 2A and a plurality of heating elements 8A, linearly and longitudinally of the substrate.
According to the image processing apparatus incorporating the integrated image-reading/writing head X constituted as above, a document D is contacted onto the transparent cover 19A and fed by rotation of a first platen roller P1 serving as a document feeding roller. During this process, the document D is illuminated by light from the light source 3A. Reflected light from the document D is focused by a lens 5A disposed between the reading line L and each of the light receiving elements 2A, forming an image of the document D onto the array of the light receiving elements 2A. Thus, an image data of the document D can be obtained in each of the light receiving elements 2A. On the other hand, a recording paper K is contacted onto each of the heating elements and fed by rotation of a second platen roller P2 serving as a recording-paper feeding roller. During this process, appropriate ones of the heating elements 8A are selected based on data of an image to be recorded in the recording paper K, and the selected heating elements 8A are heated to form an image in the recording paper K.
According to the integrated image-reading/writing head X arranged as described above, the light receiving elements 2A are mounted on the first surface 40A of the substrate 4 whereas the heating elements 8A are mounted on the second surface 40B of the substrate 4A, resulting in the following problems.
Specifically, first, when mounting the light receiving elements 2A and the heating elements 8A on the substrate 4A, the light receiving elements 2A are mounted first on the first surface 40A of the substrate 4A for example, and then the substrate 4A must be turned over in order to mount the heating elements 8A on the second surface 40B of the substrate 4A. As exemplified, in order to carry out necessary steps to the substrate 4A, operations must be performed to each of the first surface 40A and the second surface 40B of the substrate 4A at very much lower operation efficiency as compared to a case in which operations are performed to only one surface of the substrate 4A.
Second, according to the integrated image-reading/writing head X, the document D is fed while being tightly contacted onto the transparent cover 19A fitted into the opening 10A of the case 1A whereas the recording paper K is fed while being tightly contacted onto each of the heating elements 8A mounted on the second surface 40B of the substrate 4A. Specifically, according to the image processing apparatus incorporating the integrated image-reading/writing head X, the platen roller P1 for feeding the document is disposed above the integrated image-reading/writing head X whereas the platen roller P2 for feeding the recording paper is disposed below the integrated image-reading/writing head X. Therefore, in this image processing apparatus, due to the disposition of the platen rollers P1, P2, it is difficult to reduce an overall size of the image processing apparatus by decreasing a vertical dimension.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to improve manufacturing efficiency of the integrated image-reading/writing head, and to make possible to reduce the size of the image processing apparatus.